Weather: The day went back and forth between partly and mostly cloudy. Wind was light in the morning building to about 10 MPH out of the NW in the afternoon. Temps went up quickly from a cool morning into the low 70's.
The Day: We started right around 7AM thanks to my boater Art showing up a bit late. We got our starting spot, a reed point with boulders on the West lake, despite going out 9th. The point didn't give us anything but about 15 minutes in as we headed back to the East I got 14.5" on a yellow Zoom Horny Toad out of the reeds. I was awfully glad to have it, because I came into the tournament awfully pessimistic. About 10 minutes later I caught one that was to small on the Horny Toad. Eventually we pulled off of the reeds and slop and I got another dink that didn't measure on a black/blue Berkley Powerbait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw texas rigged with a 3/16oz tungsten weight. Nothing else happened out there so we moved.
We went to the mouth of a slop bay and worked our way in. In the pads I got a 15" fish on a Yellow Spro Frog. I think that was the only fish we had hit in the slop.As we came out of the bay I think that is were Art got his first fish of the day. Next we headed to a hump that
Guy and I fished in my last tournament on Rabbit Lake. Art just got done telling me "this didn't seem to be the deal" when I hooked into a quality 16.5" bass on the Chigger Craw. Next at my suggestion we went to a weedline off of some docks that Guy showed me at the previous tournament. I cast into a clump of cabbage weeds that were on the edge of a weed point with the Chigger Craw. I thought I was caught on some weeds but then my pole kept bending, so I set the hook. It immediately jumped showing me it was a bass and it was a good one. When I got it in I estimated it at 19.25". I had to estimate it because Art ruler was only 17.5" in length. Art guessed it was close to 5lbs and I said it was a 4 for sure. It turned out to be 4lbs 4ozs and won me the Lunker/ Big Bass "wood". Needless to say I was feeling much more positive about the day at this point.
As we worked our way East I spotted a stick in the cabbage on a reed edge and pulled a 15.25" off of it on the Chigger Craw. Art got a fish off of some pads with the wind blowing into them. I missed a good bite in the reeds with wind blowing into them on a craw tube near our starting spot. We ended up going to the far West end of the lake. Art lost a good fish right away on a frog, then he caught a dink that was too small. We worked around the bay. I did have one hit in the slop, but it may have been a pike. As we came to the mouth of the bay Art got one in the pads on a frog. As we worked our way East I got my limit fish, a 14", on a Hack Attack Jig with a Chigger Craw trailer out of a pad edge that had wind blowing on it. We got back to Guy's docks and I pulled a 13 incher that didn't help me off of a boat lift on the Hack Jig. On the next dock I culled out the 14" with a 15" with the Hack Jig. That was my last bite of the day. We fished some more slop and Art missed some hits.
Results: The guys really sacked them in this one.
My 14lbs 6ozs bag was only good enough for 13th Place. Chuck Steinbauer won his 3rd tournament of the year and second in a row with 18/05.
Thoughts: Huge thank you to Guy Henkensiefken for showing me the area/ spot where the big bass came out of.
We didn't fish in the East Lake at all.
Turns out Guy is my boater for the next tournament, which is a "blind" tournament where we won't find out what lake it's at until that morning.
